on all right till it was getting pretty
late, though there was two or three snorers that got their noses close
to the deck an' kep' up a pretty fair imitation of a brass band.
Suddenly Bob began to dream, or took a nightmare or somethin', for he
hit straight out with both fists, givin' the purser a tap on the nob
with his left, an' diggin' his right into my bread-basket with such good
will that he nearly knocked all the wind out o' me, at the same time he
uttered a most appallin' yell.

"The confusion that followed is past description.

"Some of us thought it was the tiger had broke loose,--forgettin' that
it had been sent ashore. Bob sneaked off the moment he found what he'd
done, and the purser, thinkin' it was pirates, grabbed the first he
could lay hold of by the throat, and that was me, so to it we went tooth
an' nail, for I had no notion who was pitchin' into me, it was so dark.
Two of the men in their fright sprang up the main shrouds. Two others,
who were asleep in the main-top, were awoke by the row, looked down on
the starboard side, an' saw the two comin' up. Thinking it was the
friends of the Malay who had been flogged coming to be revenged, they
ran down the port shrouds like mad, and one o' them rushed along the
port-deck, stickin' his feet into the bread-baskets of all the sleepers
that hadn't been woke by the yell, rousin' them up an' causin' them to
roar like bo'suns. The row woke the cook, who was a nigger; he,
thinkin' it was a sudden jollification, seized one o' the coppers an'
began to beat it with an iron spoon. This set up the quartermaster, who
rushed along the starboard deck, trampin' upon the breasts and faces of
all and sundry. The gunner thought it was the tiger, and took to the
top of the awning; while the doctor and bo's'n's-mate they jumped over
the side, and hung on by ropes up to their waists in water!

"At the worst o' the confusion the cap'n came aboard. We didn't see
him, but he ordered silence, an' after a while we discovered that there
was no reason whatever for the shindy. It wasn't till a long time
afterwards that we found out the real cause of the false alarm; but the
only man that got no fright that night, and kep' quite cool, was the man
who set it all agoin'--Bob Roarer."

"_What_ a feller you are, Bill, to talk blarney," said Corney, rising
and knocking the ashes out of his pipe; "sure, aither yer father or yer
mother must have bin an Irishman."

"Blarney or no b